Monday, September 26, 2011

These I have been made for some while but involve a trip to the post office and queues but I promise to get them off this week, Jude put up a brainstorming sheet here.. I spotted "the tear" and thought that could be read two ways so here are the tear as in cry

Sunday, September 25, 2011

On our second day we were driven out through the city to visit the Catherine Palace. Be prepared for a serious gold overload.

Well this is as far I went before I discovered that Slide has ceased to function. I was going to show you all the gold work in the Catherine Palace and link it cunningly to the fact that to day is our Golden Wedding Day.
Here is one of the pictures, it was amazing.

There is quite a good tour on You Tube here.
Does anyone know another good slide maker?

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

I first became interested in paintings, living in Paris in the 1960s . As I discovered new (to me) artists it seemed that many of the pictures they painted where llisted as being in The Hermitage Museun in St Petersburg, at that time completely out of reach.
How fortunate then to not only visit The Hermitage but, thanks to a Golden Wedding Present from our son and daughter, to be provided with a personal guide, Tatyana. At the beginning we were the very first people to walk through the magical galleries. It brings a lump to my throat even now, the sheer wonder and excitment of it all. Students are allowed in before the crowds arrive to study and copy and as we saw as we left the crowds are huge. The Museum has a very good web site with the history and virtual tours which can show you details and object which we didn't see.It is made up of three palaces which are painted different colours on the outside,I liked the idea of colour coded palaces! The first slide show is the Winter Palace.

The Slide had cropped this photograph, this corridor is inspired by the corridor in the Vatican.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

I may have missed sailing into Venice but I made sure I was up and about for the arrival in St Petersburg. This was somewhere I have wanted to visit since I first discovered Tolstoy, a very long time ago.
This was our arrival..

If you click on the slide it will take you to a closer view and yes, we were that close to the bridge!

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Our holiday began with a text which said "turn on skype", I did and there was our daughter who said "Pack!" Just when we thought there was no chance of being able to join her, after a summer of trying, there was a last minute cancellation. A frantic 28 hours later we landed in Copenhagen. We fell into bed and the next day just had time for a quick walk before we joined the Sojourn. The first thing we saw was bikes, they were everywhere.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Before I start the holiday I have to show you what was waiting for me when I arrived home.

My very own Jude feather. It is my birthday present to me. I have tried several times to aquire a piece of Jude's work but because of the time thing I've always missed out. This piece is about 4"x3", a precious fragment and look what else was in the packet, some magic thread, which so often is part of Jude's work. Now to find the perfect way to display it. So happy.

Sunday, September 04, 2011

We have just arrived back from an amazing trip, one, that until two weeks ago today, I didn't know we would be taking. We managed, with two days notice, to join the Seabourn Sojourn for a Baltic cruise. I will not be showing you all the 1500 photographs I took but for my own sake I will be putting some of them here for a reminder.

Thank you to everyone who left comments on my last post, I will try and answer them all when I've done the washing!